Youth site, town try to coexist

Residents Khalid Cooper, 17, left, and Ahsan Guy, 19, walk from the high school on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, at Berkshire Farm in Canaan, N.Y

My colleague Dayelin Roman had an article in Sunday’s paper on how the communities in Columbia County are coexisting with the Berkshire Farm Center for troubled youth.

Here’s a portion of the story:

Wanda Halten knew something was wrong when she drove up Route 22 and saw the State Police cruiser near her home. Inside, mud was tracked all over the place and a porcelain lamp was broken, but her jewelry lay untouched on the table where she’d left it.The troopers soon determined the intruder that August day was a teenager who had walked out of the Berkshire Farm Center, a facility for troubled boys and young men. He told them he traipsed through the woods before coming upon Halten’s home, where he went in and helped himself to some chocolate from the freezer.

Similar scenes have played out over the years in this northern Columbia County town, where break-ins and petty thefts are reminders that residents share their rural community with an institution dedicated to the education and care of wayward youth.

But officials said their school plays a vital role teaching children in a setting where the doors are never locked.